Fifth Third Bank has stopped its payday-type loan service that enabled cash-strapped customers to get extremely short-term loans.

It said it won’t enroll customers into its Early Access service as of Feb. 1. Fifth Third will phase out the service by year-end for customers who were already in the Early Access program.

Early Access, like several other banks’ programs, gives customers a short-term loan that they pay back out of their next paycheck. Fifth Third customers pay back the loans through the bank’s direct deposit service. It charges 10 percent of the amount advanced to the customer.

The fees come to a 120 percent annual rate when paid back in a month, Fifth Third said on its website. The bank calls that charge a transaction fee instead of an interest rate. But customers filed at least three lawsuits over the past year-and-a-half against Fifth Third regarding the program. They claimed that the program’s fees were too high and they amounted to interest rates that sometimes reached several hundred percent, depending on how fast the loan was paid back.

Fifth Third said in a news release that it will develop alternative programs to provide financing to customers who used the Early Access program. It plans to do that by the end of the year or early next year.

“(Fifth Third) has looked at the clear and continued need for small dollar, short-term credit solutions for its customers,” Fifth Third said in a news release. “Fifth Third has conducted extensive research with its customers which indicates that this is an important service to them. Because of that, the bank is committed to the thoughtful development of alternative solutions and offering services to customers that provide them choices, while ensuring consistency with regulatory viewpoints.

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